Chapter Text
"[Y/N]!" a call met your ears and you turned around in the airport to look at whoever was yelling at you. You could see your friends waving and you grinned ecstatically, practically skipping over to them as your suitcase glided smoothly across the shining airport floor.
"Kayla! Adam! Nina! J!" you grinned widely at your friends, embracing them tightly. It had been so long since the five of you had last met up - back before you moved to the UK, that was. Seeing your old school gang again was amazing, especially after you had conceded that you were probably never going to see them again.
"It's good to see you, [Y/N]!" Nina grinned as you pulled back from the hug. She looked beautiful; dark hair and skin and the brightest green eyes you had ever seen, and she was in a gorgeous green dress, with thin spaghetti straps and a skirt made of a floaty, flowing material. Her hair was in tight locs and pulled back into a loose bun, gold clips catching the light as she moved. "How have you been?"
"I've been great!" you smiled as your group began to walk through the airport, glad to stretch your legs after two long flights. "I love London but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss New York."
"Well, duh," Adam said, bumping you in the shoulder. He was tall and muscular, with short hair that was dyed a deep blue - when you had first met him in high school, he had seemed your typical jock. Muscles, sports wear and so forth, but deep down, he was a giant, dumb nerd. The two of you had almost dated at one point, but there were no hard feelings between you and Adam now. At least on your side. "I mean, we're not in London."
"Adam, please." J chastised with a frown. J had been one of your first friends, and they had moved to New York at the same time as you, except they had moved all the way from India. Second grade would have been even more scary if not for them, and you had been by their side for most of the year until you and J had managed to make other friends. "I'm sure London is awesome, right?"
"We really ought to fly to London so you can show us the sights!" Kayla grinned. Kayla was, as far as you could remember, Mexican, with tanned skin and straight brown hair, done up in pigtails. You recalled going around to her family's for Cinco de Mayo one year before you left, remembering how absolutely smashed your parents had gotten. Embarrassing, but now you were an adult, also hilarious.
"You have to!" you said excitedly, spinning on your heel so you could walk backwards and watch them all. "I'm not sure you could all crash at home, though. My house in London is about a fifth the size of my parents old apartment in New York."
"Are you kidding?" J asked with a gasp, eyebrows raised. "I'd heard that England had small houses, but wow, I didn't think it was true."
"Oh, it is." you said, patting J's shoulder as you span back around, laughing. "Teeny tiny houses. But anyway, we're not here to talk about houses! San Diego Comic Con, bitches!" you exclaimed, punching the air in excitement.
"Hell yeah!" Adam said as he loaded your suitcase into his car. "Even if we're staying in LA, it's gonna be fucking awesome! Who are you guys looking forward to seeing most?"
"Uh, George RR Martin?" Kayla said, as if the answer was obvious.
"Patrick Stewart, definitely." J replied after a moment of thought.
"Hm, I'm not sure! I'm just looking forward to it." Nina said with a shrug.
"I think... Markiplier." you said after a moment of thought. Adam gave you a funny look as you got into the car.
"That idiot YouTuber? Oh, come on. PewdiePie is so much better!" he scoffed, rolling his eyes as he put on his seatbelt.
"Uh, excuse me?" you gave him a funny look, putting a hand on your chest in mock offence. "PewdiePie is annoying as heck. Markiplier is funny and genuine, and doesn't make disgusting jokes." you huffed as Adam set off from the airport to your hotel, waving your hand nonchalantly. "Besides, Markiplier lives in LA. I'm gonna be in the same city as my favourite YouTuber! And I'm hopefully gonna meet him! Don't you rain on my god damn parade, Adam." you stuck out your tongue and Adam huffed good naturedly.
You caught up with your friends before you pulled up to the hotel, exchanging stories about the things that had happened since you'd moved away. Adam was in college, studying fine arts whilst also on the football team. Nina was a model - and earning a lot, too. J was helping to run their mother's café business in the big NYC, and was already assistant manager, and Kayla was in medical school, training to be a paediatrician. When you mentioned you were an emergency technician at a London hospital, all four of them started to bug you about exciting stories - as they'd obviously been watching too much drama about London, and you assured them it wasn't that bad.
When you finally reached the hotel, you got your key and headed up to your room. The five of you were all on the same floor, but whilst Kayla, Adam, J and Nina were going to head off for some sight seeing, you were exhausted - long haul flights from Los Angeles to London were not something you would have ever done for fun, so you waved them off and collapsed on the bed in your room, reaching lazily for the remote and turning on the TV, to a breaking news story.
"--yone you know shows any flu-like symptoms, please isolate them immediately. Remain in your homes unless you must leave. Reports from China are coming in that thousands of people have die--" you groaned (wholly underestimating what the newsreader had been talking about) as you turned off the TV and laid face down, falling asleep.
Little did you know that a storm was heading your way as you happily slept until your friends got back. Even when Adam started to sniffle and cough when the five of you went out for dinner, and even when you went to the con. You had met Mark, Bob and Wade and you were still riding off your high when the five of you ate in J's room.
"I'm gonna... go to bed," Adam groaned, rubbing his forehead. "I feel like shit." he said.
"You look it," Nina said, standing up. "Come on. Let's get you to your room." Nina said, lifting a pale Adam up and taking him from the room.
"Sorry, [Y/N]. I know you were looking forward to hanging out tomorrow, but..." Adam trailed off and sneezed loudly. "Sorry."
"It's okay, dude. You concentrate on feeling better, yeah?" you said as Adam left, turning to Kayla and J. "I better call it a night. The jetlag's still got her claws in me."
"All right, see you tomorrow, [Y/N]." Kayla said with a smile. You nodded to her, standing and leaving the room, closing the door behind you with a soft click. You walked through the corridor, avoiding a puddle of sick on the floor (was that Adam? Gross.) and returning to your room. You had a hot shower, sitting underneath the running water before you collapsed in your bed again, turning on the TV.
"--ore reports of deaths outside of China have been reported. Airports across the world have been closed and flights have been cancelled." you gasped. Cancelled? How were you supposed to get home in two days? "A state of emergency has been declared in--." your eyes widened as you finally started paying attention. You were out of money, you needed to be at the airport by five am, and the borders were closed? You had no family left in the US - near enough everyone had emigrated to the UK or were so distant you couldn't even remember their first names.
You looked back at the TV. "People are advised to wash their hands after touching another person and to avoid contact with the sick at all costs. Symptoms are flu-like, with coughing, sneezing and vomiting, and a high fever. If you come into contact with someone with those symptoms, please isolate yourself from the healthy." this was terrifying. You were terrified. This sounded like a movie, like the end of the world. Surely not?
You didn't know how right you were. You didn't leave your room for two days, sustaining yourself on the food that the hotel was still kindly providing. You and your friends talked through Skype, and sometime in the night, Adam stopped messaging, without saying goodnight. Nina was next to stop, all of a sudden in the middle of one of her stories. Then J not long after. Then finally, Kayla, early in the morning on the second day, saying that she was scared. The food hadn't come the second day, and you were hungry. You knew the hotel staff had told you to stay in your room, but... you couldn't. Curiosity was set deep as you left the relative safety of your room behind, straying out into the corridor.
You knocked on the doors of your friends' rooms, but there was no answer. You called their names, but there was no answer. You pounded your fists against the doors, ramming them with your shoulders, but there was no answer. Panic bloomed in your stomach as you wandered through the eerily quiet corridors - normally, a hotel this large was bustling and you could hear people at all hours, closing and opening doors, walking around, doing all sorts of things. All you could hear right now was your own frightened breathing.
You made it down to the reception, not meeting a soul as you walked slowly down the stairs. There wasn't anyone at front desk, no one sitting, milling around. No one anywhere. You swallowed the lump in your throat as you wandered to the front door. It slid open quietly and you looked outside. No one. Not a soul. Cars lay abandoned in the streets, as if there had been some sort of order to evacuate - and then you saw it. Corpses. Slumped over their steering wheels, collapsed on benches, laying on the pavement where they had fallen.
You nearly threw up then and there - but you had little in your stomach and it just heaved as you stumbled backwards into the hotel, falling onto the floor with a loud thump, wrists smacking against the marble as you backed away, the doors sliding closed. This couldn't be right, you had to be dreaming. You weren't in a Hollywood movie about a plague apocalypse, this was real life. And yet, there were people dead outside.
You ran up to the hotel roof, kicking the door to the roof down as you stumbled out into the burning summer sun. As your lungs heaved with the effort, you slowly walked to the edge and looked down. There were cars everywhere, and bodies too. Your head felt dizzy and you fell - backwards, thankfully - landing on your arse with another thump.
"Shit." you said with a shaking voice. "No. Shit. Fuck." you could see smoke in the distance - billowing and black. Gunshots made you flinch, and as you lifted yourself to your feet slowly, your throat felt dry.
You had to get food. You had to find shelter. You needed to survive. And if you knew just who you were going to survive with, you would have felt a hell of a lot better.